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Hemantha Warnakulasuriya

The 28th of October is the first death anniversary of Sugathapala De Silva. To my mind there is yet to be born in Sri Lanka a dramatist - a genius like Sugathapala De Silva. It is accepted that Sarachchandra's Maname began the renaissance of the Sinhala theatre. To its enthusiasts Maname was the beginning and Sinhabahu was the end of the stylized form of theatre.

The great task of transforming the Sinhala nadagama into modern theatre had began with Maname. A Culture which had lost its identity and was in search if its roots found that Maname filled the void. This epitomized what Sarachchandra himself once disparagingly called "a campaign of national boosting" in relation to Sinhala literature.

To some, Sarachchandra paved the way purely for the elitist English speaking society and the products of the University to rekindle their interest in indigenous theatre.

Sarachchandra drew inspiration from kabuki a traditional form of Japanese theatre. It was founded early in the 17th century by a woman called Okuni, a shrine maiden who brought her unique and lively dance style to the dry river beds of the ancient capital of Kyoto. It made the Japanese, devastated by the war, to search deep into the traditional theatre and find solace in Kabuki.

Iconoclasts

With the renewed interest in Sinhala theatre, there developed a generation of younger people who rebelled against the established order. To them Maname and the stylized form of theatre has now become an integral part of the establishment. These young critics felt that theatre cannot be developed in the stylized format and felt that stylized theatre might eventually prove the death knell of Sinhala theatre.

They rapidly progressed towards a turnaround with thoughts of starting something different to Sarachchandra's thinking. Most of them had never gone to the University. Their University was the University of Life. They were journalists, critics and other ad-hoc personalities who took an abiding interest in the theatre in the wake of Sarachchandra's renaissance. These people were iconoclasts. They sought inspiration from the West specially from the Avant Garde French theatre and films.

Existentialism was their philosophy. Sartre was their guide. They drove inspiration from even the relationship Sartre had with Simone de Beauvoir his life long companion.

Voracious

One of the men who found fault with the established order was Sugathapala de Silva. He came to Colombo as a recluse or as an outcast from his family who wanted him to join his father's business at Gampola. He joined K.V.G. De Silva & Co as a salesman.

Unlike today in the early sixties good English books published in England were imported and sold at the K.V.G. de Silva bookshop. Sugathapala De Silva learnt his basics in writing skills by being engrossed in the tomes at KVG's. He was a voracious reader. During his spare time he used to read two or three books in a day.

As a writer of no mean repute and a columnist he met and developed a friendship with a like-minded group of people - Cyril B. Perera, G.W. Surendra, Ralex Ranasinghe, Augusts Vinayagaratnam and host of others whom he met at various watering holes to discuss literature and theatre. G.W. Surendra at that time was co-editor of a weekly magazine called Dina Dina.

Unconventional

Cyril B. Perera was a critic who wrote to this magazine under the pen name of 'sebeera'. Ralex Ranasinghe was an unusual man. He was a photographer. There was something in his photography to make it talk to the inward passions of man. One thing they had in common was that their thinking and expression were completely unconventional and unorthodox.

At that time the group's main interest was cinema and the french cinema attracted them much. They discussed religion, philosophy, music, art, theatre, and literature at the Press Club. Sometimes their arguments virtually ended in fisticuffs but they adored each other's views that sometimes bordered on the eccentric.

They argued that Sarachchandra's Maname and Sinhabahu did much damage to the Sinhala theatre. They loathed the coterie of critics some of whom were students of Sarachchandra at the University and who lauded him day after day. The newspapers were full with prose in adulation of their former teacher.

They could not comprehend the reason behind this pretentious platitudes and copious writings of these golayas without perceiving the inherent weaknesses which they saw in Maname and Sinhabahu. The pointed out that even Greek drama as Sophocles found them emerged from a lyrical performance made up of song, ritual and dance. Sugathapala de Silva and his friends decided to form themselves into a group they named "Ape Kattiya".

There were no leaders, presidents or Chairmen. There was no Constitution and no minutes of meetings were ever recorded. Yet they met at the back room of Gamage Hotel situated at Dehiwela where Sugathapala de Silva was boarded.

The hotel was a tea boutique that had only one entrance. In the evening one could discern the members of the Ape Kattiya and their friends assembled at Sugathapala De Silva's room that was just large enough to keep his bed and books. From there they proceeded to the Press Club where old Simeon served the most delicious dishes to so with the arrack that they drank. They recited poetry and read from his first play that was to be produced. They then retired to Gamage Hotel to have further discussions until the wee hours of the following morning.

Marvelled

Sugathapala De Silva never had the last word on anything. The group went through every single line and piece of dialogue and changed them several times. The first play that was Bodinkarayo a dialogue play: became an instant success.

If one had the good fortune to see G.W. Surendra performing the main role it would most likely to have been etched in one's memory. It was such a sterling performance, unbelievable and unimaginable.

It won several awards at the National Drama Festival. Then followed the successful production, the Thattu Geval. In my mind that was the best Sinhala drama ever staged. It was precocious and beyond the imagination of anyone of us.

The dialogue of Sugathapala De Silva was so advanced it was comparable with the great plays of the world. Those who were fortunate to see the performance of Tony Ranasinghe and G.W. Surendra would never forget the subtle movements of the limbs and variations in the delivery of dialogue of the two.

Surendra, in particular, performed with such consummate ease that even the slight twitch in his eyebrows that was brought about with minimum of effort was something to be seen to be believed. A professor at the Colombo University who saw this play was marvelled by it and came to the boutique where Sugathapala de Silva stayed and told him that it is one of the best plays ever produced by mankind. Sugathapala De Silva laughed at what seemed to him an exaggeration. He in his modesty never accepted this fact or believed he had produced the best of the classical Sinhala plays ever produced in the country.

I believe that if, one day, his Bodinkarayo and Tattu Gewal will be translated into English it would undoubtedly enrich English literature and theatre. Sugathapala translated, produced an adopted Pirandello's Six Characters in search of an Author called 'Harima Badu Hayak' which I believe is the best translation ever produced.

With 'Harima Badu Hayak' he came to the zenith of his creativity. Later on his friends could not meet him at regular intervals to fill the absence there were young people who befriended him. After 'Harima Badu Hayak' the other plays produced by him never had the originality and the skill he displayed as a dramatist. He produced a stylized play 'Nil Katarodumal' which turned out to be a disaster. Later his dire financial straits made him produce plays that he thought would appeal to theatre audiences but turned out to be epic flops.

On 28th October following long illness which immobilized him, passed away from our midst. Like Beethovan, De Maupassant and Van Gogh, he died in penury.

Rebel

After he died there were accolades showered on him. Sugathapala De Silva was a rebel with a cause.

He fought the established order in drama as well as in politics. Like many a great dramatist he was not the product of a University. But he had the earthly wisdom to comprehend that an ensemble of song dance and the ritual called the indigenous theatre would only boost up national sentiments.

He would wholeheartedly agree with Sarachchandra, when the latter said "Those who still wish to carry on a campaign of national boosting will be doing a greater disservice to the country that they are fully conscious of. For those who approach Sinhalese literature with any scale of values, whatsoever, are bound to discover that it falls far short of the extraordinary claims that have been made for it". One had to only substitute the word "literature" with "theatre" to realize how correct Sarachchandra and Sugathapala de Silva were.

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